Press ReleaseEducation ministers discussed new evaluation indicators, multilingualism in education and the integrated guidelines for growth and jobs

Under the chairmanship of Mady Delvaux-Stehres, Luxembourg’s Minister for National Education and Vocational Training, the "Education" Council adopted the conclusions for the national education and training indicators on 24 May 2005.

"The Lisbon Strategy, which aims to make the European Union the most dynamic and competitive knowledge economy in the world by 2010, places special emphasis on education," Mady Delvaux-Stehres said. From this perspective, the increased necessity of having comparable and quality indicators and statistics to evaluate and compare the different educational systems is explained. "These conclusions recognise this fact and highlight the necessity of using existing data and indicators as much as possible and of strengthening cooperation with the international organisations active in this area to avoid duplication and improve the consistency of data collected by different bodies," the Minister for National Education and Vocational Training stated. They are "also a useful tool that transcends Lisbon and 2010 to enable us to measure the efforts of our national policies by comparing them to each other and with other countries that are not EU members," the Minister added.

Mady Delvaux-Stehres also informed the Council of a conference on multilingual education that was held in the context of the Presidency on 10 and 11 March in Luxembourg. The conference, entitled "The Evolution of Education in Europe – Multilingualism Opens Up New Perspectives," more specifically analysed the teaching method known as CLIL-EMILE: (Content and Language Integrated Learning). The conference ended on the need for drawing more attention to the EMILE method. This method can contribute to individual and collective prosperity and can strengthen social cohesion. The method thus presents a practical tool for promoting European citizenship while increasing student and worker mobility. A necessity for the promoters that are contributing to the introduction, development, coordination and extension of EMILE has been recognised, as well as the special training of teachers. The exchange of scientific data and good practices should also be encouraged at the European level. The conference participants concluded that a wide variety of languages could be promoted using this tool.

The Council exchanged views on the integrated guidelines for growth and jobs. Based on a questionnaire prepared by the Presidency, the Ministers talked about the role of education and training in the integrated guidelines from an economic and social perspective. They also reviewed opportunities for ensuring the active participation of the ministers of education in the revised Lisbon Strategy and in the continuation of the "Education and Training 2010" work programme at national and European levels. The Minister observed that "education and training have an important contribution to make to social cohesion." She observed that the ministers were satisfied that education features in the integrated guidelines and that this is a step forward compared to the previous guidelines. However, education, in addition to its role in economic activity, also has a cultural and social mission. In this regard, the "Education and Training 2010" work programme is as important as ever.

Under "other items", three information items were on the agenda:

An information item from Commissioner Jan Figel, "Mobilising European brains: allowing universities to contribute fully to the Lisbon Strategy" on the role of universities.

An information item from the Polish delegation on the Council of Europe seminar "Teaching Memory" held 4 and 5 May 2005 in Krakow.

An information item from the French delegation on the initiative to fight anti-Semitism and racism.

The "Youth" session ended with a short presentation of the future British Presidency’s programme and on acknowledgements to the Minister of National Education and Vocational Training for the progress made under the Luxembourg Presidency.